RightsBase

human rights news & views

Life after climate change?

Gentle reader, May I share with you two things that have come across my desk this evening which have had a profound impact on me? One is an 8-minute video by Oxfam about the life of a woman in rural Uganda facing the 'indescribable pain' of climate change. The second is an article in the […]

New commitment to ending child soldiers

Recruiting child soldiers under the age of 18 is a crime under international law. Recruiting children under the age of 15 is a war crime. The International Criminal Court‘s first trial will be that of DRC warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, charged with recruiting child soldiers as young as 10. The term ‘child soldier’ refers to […]

Uganda realises right to free secondary education

Last year, RightsBase hailed the introduction of free primary education in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Uganda, resulting in huge increases in school attendance and great knock-on benefits to the kids and their society. Now Uganda is offering free secondary education, in accordance with its human rights obligations. The International Covenant on the Economic, Social and […]

Millennium Goals offer security to rich nations

Leading economist Jeffrey Sachs says ending poverty will relieve security concerns of rich nations. Dr Sachs, best-selling author of The End of Poverty currently serving as Special Adviser to the UN on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), says conflict in places such as the Horn of Africa is fuelled by poverty: "This isn’t a crisis […]

Realising the right to education in Africa

School fees as low as 875 shillings ($US12) a year is enough to prevent millions of African children getting even a basic education. Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki made the first 8 years of school free in 2003 — including free textbooks — and the response has been tremendous. In that time, school enrolments have risen […]